Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to network communication sessions and, more particularly, to a system and method for establishing and controlling a voice communication session through a token or identifier such as an electronic mail address.
Description of the Prior Art
The provisioning of telephonic communications services (voice, fax, or data) over computer networks, such as the Internet, is well established. Various call signaling protocols, such as Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”), H.323, and MGCP are commonly used in Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) systems to control multimedia communications sessions, including voice and video calls. This includes the use of various uniform resource identifiers (“URI”) to initiate and establish such communications sessions between communications devices of a plurality of participants. A problem which still exists, however, is that existing call signaling protocols lack the ability to establish and control telecommunications sessions, such as voice communication sessions, between participants identified by a token or identifier such as a conventional electronic mail (“email”) addresses. Thus, there remains a need for a system and method for establishing and otherwise controlling telecommunications sessions using a token or identifier such as an email address to establish the connection between the parties.
The Applicant's invention described herein provides for a system and method for initiating telecommunications sessions with participants identified by a token or identifier, such as an email address. When in operation, the system and method enables a user to initiate a voice communications session with a target user by generating a call request directed at the target user's email address. advertisements relevant to a user's conversations or media heard (and/or viewed) in real time. As a result, many of the limitations imposed by prior art systems are removed.